If you're using the Pew Bible,
you'll find it on 797, Isaiah chapter 41. I want to begin reading in verse
8, but I want you to keep your Bibles handy. You're going to
need them this morning. Isaiah chapter 41, and let's
begin reading in verse 8, But thou, Israel, art my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. Thou whom I have taken from the
ends of the earth, and call thee from the chief men thereof, and
said unto thee, Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee, and not cast
thee away, fear thou not. For I am with thee, be not dismayed. for I am thy God. I will strengthen
you, yea, I will help you, yea, I will uphold you with the right
hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that are incensed
against thee shall be ashamed and confounded. They shall be
as nothing, and they that strive with you shall perish. Thou shalt
seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended
with They that war against you shall be as nothing, and as a
thing of naught. For I, the Lord your God, will
hold your right hand, saying unto you, Fear not, I will help
you. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and
ye men of Israel, I will help you, saith the Lord, and thy
Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." My subject this morning is found
in these two verses here in verses 9 and the first portion of verse
10. I have chosen thee, fear not. I have chosen thee, fear not. First of all, I want us to look
here in verse 8 concerning God's choice of these people. He tells
us here in verse 8 who He has chosen. But thou, Israel, art
my servant. Jacob whom I have chosen, the
seed of Abraham my friend." Israel here and Jacob and the seed of
Abraham are all the same. These are the natural descendants
of Abraham from Sarah. Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac
begat Jacob and Jacob begat the twelve sons and out of those
twelve sons became the twelve tribes of Israel. And he called
him Jacob. As a nation, he called him Jacob.
And the Lord brought these twelve tribes out of Egypt, brought
them into the land of Canaan and gave them that land. And
the Lord Jesus, in His humanity, came out of these people, out
of the seed of Abraham, the tribe of Judah, one of Jacob's sons. Now, it's important for us to
remember this, and I want you to stay with me. I want you to
look at some passages of Scripture with me. Abraham had two kinds
of seed. We see here the seed of Abraham. I have chosen the seed of Abraham. Abraham had two kinds of seed.
He had one that the Bible calls his fleshly seed. His seed according
to the flesh. The natural seed of Abraham. And then he had what I call the
spiritual seed, the children of promise. And while all of
Abraham's descendants were his natural seed, not all of his
descendants were his spiritual seed. To be Abraham's natural
seed, you simply had to be born a Jew. You had to trace your
lineage back to one of the twelve tribes. Paul said that he came
out of the tribe of Benjamin, didn't he? That was one of the
tribes also. The natural seed of Abraham. But Abraham had another seed,
a spiritual seed. He was the physical father, but
he's also a spiritual father. He's a natural father of all
his children, but he's also a spiritual father. The Jews told the Lord
Jesus, they were arguing with Him in John chapter 8, and He
told them they were in bondage. Bondage to sin and bondage to
the devil. And they said, we'd be Abraham's
seed. We were never in bondage to any
man. And the Lord said, I know that you're Abraham's seed. You
are indeed Abraham's seed. You can trace your lineage back
to one of the tribes. But he said, you're not Abraham's
children. If you were Abraham's children,
you'd love me. If you were Abraham's children,
you'd do the works of Abraham. So Abraham had two kinds of children. He had two kinds of seed. A natural
seed and he had a spiritual seed. Abraham's natural seed had a
great advantage. Paul tells us that in Romans
3. What advantage is there in being
a Jew? Much every way. The Lord called
him out of Egypt and gave him his laws and gave him the priesthood
and gave him prophets. And he taught them. They had
the way of salvation preached unto them and taught them. And
the rest of the world, for the most part, lived in darkness.
All they had was the light of nature. So it wasn't an advantage
to be of the seed of Abraham, to be born in his lineage. But
just to be born of the seed of Abraham naturally didn't mean
you were going to be saved. He had a spiritual seed also. Now, I want you to hold Isaiah
chapter 41, and I want you to turn to some passages of Scripture.
Look with me in Romans chapter 9. Look in Romans chapter 9 and
begin reading here in verse 3. This is what Paul is going to
teach us here. That Abraham has two seeds. The
Jews depended a lot on being the natural seed of Abraham.
Put a little stock on checking to see whether or not they were
his spiritual seed. That nation has all but ceased
as a natural seed, hasn't it? They don't even know what tribe
they are out of anymore. Most of them are gone, lost. Look
here in Romans chapter 9, in verse 3. I could wish that myself
were a curse from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, look
at this, according to the flesh. Abraham's seed. were Abraham's
seed. Who are Israelites? They came
out of the tribe of Jacob. They came out of his loins, naturally. To whom pertaineth the adoption,
and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and
the services of God, and the promises? Whose are the fathers,
and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over
all God blessed forever? Not as though the word of God
hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which are
of Israel. Ain't that amazing? Neither because
they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in
Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children
of the promise are counted for the seed. And look what he says
in verse 9. He's going to explain this. For
this is the word of promise. God, at this time, God came to
Sarah an old woman, Abraham an old man, and said, At this time
will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. What does that mean? Abraham was a child of promise.
Before he was ever born, God promised him to Abraham and to
Sarah. He was a child of promise. He was a child of Abraham's natural
loins. He was born as natural as anybody
else. But Paul said more than that.
He was a child of promise. Look in verse 10. And not only
this, but also Rebekah, Isaac's wife. She conceived. by one, even by our father Isaac. For the children being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth, it was said unto her, The elder shall serve
the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, Jacob have
I chosen, but he shall have I passed by rejected and hated. What shall
we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. For he says to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion, so that it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh,
even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might
show my power in you. and that my name may be declared
throughout all the earth. Therefore have he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he harden." You could be a child of Abraham
naturally and not be a child of Abraham spiritually. In the
Old Testament, most of Abraham's spiritual seed came out of his
natural seed. Most of the elect of God, those
who were chosen, came out of Abraham's loins, his natural
seed. Most of the Gentiles lived in
darkness. But you know, in the New Testament,
it changed, didn't it? In the New Testament, you find
the seed of Abraham not only taken from among the Jewish nation,
but you find them among the Gentiles. Look here what he says in chapter
11. Look here in chapter 11. what the Apostle Paul says. You go back and read the Old
Testament, and one of the things that you often find, as Brad
read to us this morning, as Brother Larry has been teaching us, there
were some awful ungodly men among the nation of Israel. A lot of
false prophets. A lot of them perished. A lot
of them perished. But Paul proves here in chapter
11 that there has always been a remnant of Abraham's spiritual
seed. There was a host of his natural
seed, but there has always been a remnant of his spiritual seed
in the Old Testament, and Paul is going to prove it in you.
Look in verse 1 of chapter 11. I say then, hath God cast away
his people? Has he cast away all of Israel?
Lord sure appeared that way. God forbid, for I also am an
Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. God
has not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wilt ye not
what the scripture says of Elijah, how he made intercessions to
God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed your prophets?
Israel has digged down your altars. The seed of Abraham, they have
done this. And I am left alone and they
seek my life. But what saith the answer of
God to him? Look at this. I have reserved
to myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to
the image of Baal, so that at this present time also there
is a remnant according to the election of grace. There was in the Old Testament
during Elijah's day, though the whole nation seemed to be given
over to idolatry, there was a remnant. There were 7,000 men who were
God's chosen people, the seed of Abraham, that did not bow
and would not bow to false gods. And Paul said there are 7,000
in his day, at this present time. And I just about bet you, brothers
and sisters, if you knew There's a remnant
today among that nation that are worshiping the Son of
God and that believe on Him. They're not so much Abraham's
natural seed. They put no stock in that. But
they're his spiritual seed. They are the true seed of Abraham. Look back in chapter 9 one more
time. Look in verse 22. But it is not just the Jews that
have a remnant. But look here in verse 22. What
if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known,
endeared with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His
glory on the vessels of mercy? which he hath aforeprepared unto
glory, even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also
of the Gentiles." Gentiles! Now this brings us in, doesn't
it? We can't trace our lineage back to Abraham. We're Gentiles. We didn't come out of Abraham.
But you know something? If you're here this morning,
and you're a child of God, you're a believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ, you know something? You're the seed of Abraham. I
don't stress that enough as your pastor. We're bombarded in our
day that the Gentiles who are in Christ are not the true Israel. The Bible talks about the Israel
of God. It talks about the true seed
and children of Abraham. Who are those people? Look with
me over to your right. Just a few more scriptures. Look
in Galatians chapter 3. Look in Galatians chapter 3.
We have to stop, I guess, and explain these things when we
go to a text like I took this morning in Isaiah chapter 41.
You're Israel. Jacob, whom I have chosen, the
seed of Abraham, and we have to stop and go see who the seed
of Abraham is. Who are they? Look here in Galatians
chapter 3. Look in verse 6. Galatians chapter
3 verse 6. Even as Abraham believed God,
and it was counted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore,
brethren, you Gentiles, that they which are of faith, the
same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen, preached before the gospel unto
Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. Look over in chapter, the same
chapter, look over in verse 22. Look in verse 24. The law was
our schoolmaster to bring us into Christ. It condemned us. It shut us up. It proved our
guilt. It brought us to Christ and faith in Him. That we might
be justified by faith. But after that faith has come,
we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For we are all the children of
God by faith in Jesus Christ. Christ. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ, you have put on Christ. There is neither
Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free.
There is neither male nor female. For we are all one in Christ
Jesus. And look in verse 29. And if
you be Christ, if you belong to Christ, by living faith, if
you have been put into Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and
heirs according to the promise. And what does my text say about
the seed of Abraham? I have chosen you. I have chosen
you. Look in chapter 4 of Galatians
and look at this verse in Now, we brethren, you Gentiles,
we brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. Isaac was promised before he
ever had a natural birth. Was he not? At this time will
I come and you shall have a son. A year later they had a son.
He was the child of promise, given to Abraham and Sarah by
promise. And you know something? If you're
here this morning and you're a child of God, you've been saved
through faith in the Son of God. You are trusting in Him wholly. You have been brought to Him
to rely wholly upon Him. You know something? You are a
child of promise. Before you ever had a physical
being, you were promised to the Son of God. Behold, the Lord
Jesus said, I and the children that you have given to Me. God
promised His Son children. And the Lord Jesus said, I have
come to give eternal life to as many as He has promised me,
as He has given to me. You are the seed of Abraham.
And if you are the seed of Abraham, you have been chosen to that.
You have been chosen to that. But thou, Israel, art my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen the seed of Abraham. I don't know what, if anything,
the Lord has in store for natural Israel. They're regathering over
there by the flocks. They're flocking into that place.
I don't know if He's going to visit them and save them or not. Don't you hope He will? But if he does, he'll do so because
he has chosen them to salvation. Not because they can trace their
natural lineage back to one of their forefathers. It's because
they are the spiritual seed of Abraham chosen in Jesus Christ
before the foundation of the world. And if he turns back to
those people and saves them, he'll save them just like he
saved you and just like he saved me. In Christ, by the blood of
Christ, for the sake of Christ, and for the glory of Christ.
That's how he'll do it. And when he saves them, he'll
make them one with the rest of his church. There won't be two
churches. There won't be two bodies. There'll
be one. There'll be one. Jesus Christ
has forever broken down the middle wall of petition between the
Jew and the Gentile. And when He saves us and we are
put in the body of Christ, we are one. Chosen. Chosen. Look back at my text
in Isaiah chapter 41. I don't think I'm stopping enough
probably to emphasize in this first part. We have a growing,
growing number in our country today that do not believe that
any believer who is a Gentile is the seed of Abraham. They
say that's impossible. I just proved it, did I not?
You are the seed of Abraham. And now when we go back here,
we can rightly divide this and put ourselves right here. Every
child of God, each individual of the body of Christ can put
himself right here, and here is what the Lord says to you
this morning. But thou, O Israel, art my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. I am in Christ, therefore I am
the seed of Abraham. And I am the seed of Abraham
because God chose me to it. That's the first thing. Look
at this. Who did this choosing? I want you to notice here. Take
your Bibles and look at the context of this. Of course, he says here
in verse 10, Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed,
for I am thy God. And he says here in verse 13,
I, the Lord thy God, will hold thy hand. And he says there in
verse 14, Fear not, thou worm, Jacob. I will help thee, saith
the Lord, the Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Who is this that
did the choosing? The Lord thy God. I have chosen thee. The Lord thy God. You say, My
God never chose anybody. Maybe He didn't. Let's be honest,
maybe he didn't. But don't you love to come to
the Bible and distinguish who God is? And attribute to him
what he says about himself. I have chosen you. Ain't that wonderful? And he
goes on here in the context and tells these things about himself.
This is wonderful. Look in chapter 40. You'll have
to read most of this at your leisure, but look here in chapter
40. Look here who did the choosing. He describes himself in a most
amazing and exalted way and terms. He's been contrasting himself
with these idols and these false prophets and so on. Look here
what he says about himself. Behold, the Lord God will come
with strong hand, and his arms shall rule for him. If reward
is with him and his work before him, he shall feed his flock
like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arms and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead
those that are with young." Who is it that chose the seed of
Abraham? He is the shepherd, the good
shepherd, the chief shepherd, the great shepherd. I am the
good shepherd, I give my life for the sheep. That's who done
the choosing. You've not chosen me, but I've
chosen you. I'm the shepherd. He laid down
his life for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, I lay
down my life for the sheep. He's the shepherd that goes seeking
his sheep until he finds them. He's the shepherd. Can you imagine,
can you imagine the eternal God, the triune God, condescending
to take upon himself the farm and the title and the work of
a shepherd. I tell you, that didn't pay a
lot of money. It was hard work, an awful responsibility. And yet everywhere in the Bible,
he said, that's who I am. I'm a shepherd. It's the shepherd. I've chose you. I'm the shepherd.
But boy, look what a great shepherd he is in verse 12. Look at this.
Look at him as he describes himself. Verse 12 of chapter 40. Who hath
measured the waters in the holler of his hand. What a hand. No
man is able to pluck them out of my hand. I measured the waters
in the hollers of my hand. I meted out heaven. I measured
heaven with a span. We don't have an instrument to
measure the heaven. It's too big. But he can. I've
comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure. Bill and
Diana have just seen a lot of sand these last few days. You
think you can measure that sand? He can. I've measured the dust. And I've weighed the mountains
in scales and the hills in balances. Look at his wisdom. Look at his
knowledge, his understanding in verse 13. Who hath directed
the Spirit of the Lord? Nobody. Who then his counselor
has taught him? Nobody. With whom doth he counsel
and who instructed him and taught him in the paths of judgment
and taught him knowledge and showed to him the way of understanding? Nobody. Nobody. I tell you, he's too wise to
be taught anything, isn't he? He knows everything. And he's
everywhere. That's the God that chose the
seed of Abraham. Look what he says about himself
in contrast to the nations of people in verse 50. But all the
nations are as a drop of a bucket. All the nations combined together. It's just a drop out of a bucket. They are accounted as the small
dust of the balance. When they measured anything,
the weight of it, there was some dust out here on the balance.
They didn't wipe it off. It didn't affect the weight.
There was nothing to it. It didn't matter. That's how
the nations are, as the small dust, insignificant. Behold, he taketh up the islands,
the seacoast. That is a very little thing.
Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts are of sufficient
for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as
nothing, and they are accounted to him less than nothing and
vanity. To whom then will you liken God? Of what likeness shall you compare
unto him? Look what he says in verse 23.
He brings the princes of the earth to nothing. He makes the
judges of the earth as vanity. Verse 25, To whom then will you
liken me, or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One? Lift up your
eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that
bringeth out their hosts by number, and calleth them all by names,
by the greatness of his might, He is strong in power, not one
felon. Why do you say, O Jacob, why
do you speak, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my
judgment is passed over from my God? Have you not known, have
you not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of
the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary, and there
is no searching of his understanding? He's a great God, isn't He? He
just goes on exalting Himself and abasing us. Who chose you? Who chose you? This is what's so amazing, isn't
it? Go to the Word and find out who chose you. The everlasting
God. The Lord. The Creator. The Shepherd. The Redeemer, the Friend, He
chose you. Oh, what a humbling mystery.
Why would such a sovereign and high God set His love and choice
upon you? Ain't that a humbling mystery?
Why would this free and high and sovereign God set His choice
and His love upon you? Notice here in verse 9 again
in chapter 41. Notice this. Right along with
this. Look at this. Look in the last portion of verse
9. I have chosen thee and not cast thee away. You mean He had
an option? He had an option? I could have
either chosen you or I could have cast you away. He was free
to choose, or He was free to pass by. And there's no middle
ground. People don't like middle ground.
People want a middle ground. They lack gray areas, don't they?
The Lord said, I could either chose you or pass by you. I can understand why He would
pass by me. It's a mystery why He chose me. He was free to love us or loathe
us. We can understand why He would
loathe us, because of who He is and who we are. But it is
a mystery how He could love us. One who has never been taught
of God and humbled of the Lord, he might say things like this.
He chose me because He saw I was different. He saw I would do something somebody
else wouldn't. I would repent and believe when
somebody else wouldn't repent and believe. So He chose me and
He loves me for that reason. Could any of us do anything? Could we do anything? Could we
even believe? Could we even repent? Until He
had begun a work of grace in us? Until He had called us? If you and I were utterly weak
and needy before He saved us, are we not the same way now?
And if we're the same way now, weren't we much more before He
saved us and called us and gave us life? I have chosen thee,
He says, fear thou not. Why would anyone who knows himself
to be chosen fear? Why would the chosen fear? Why
does He keep saying, fear not, fear not? The first reason is
this. They see the Lord so high. They see the Lord so holy and
the Lord so sovereign and free. And they see themselves more
and more and more and more and more as the nothingness that
they are. They see in themselves the working
of sin and every reason why the Lord should reject them. They see more and more every
reason why He should love them. And they have difficulty laying
hold of the fact that He loves them. They perceive He's ready to cast
them away. And so they fear. You know more
about yourself now than you did five years ago, don't you? You
think you're worse now than you were five years ago? No, you're
not. You're not. But you say, I am. No, you're not. You were as bad
five years ago as you are now. You just see it. You see it. And because you see it, we get
it in our minds that he didn't see it. He didn't know it. And
as we learn more of it, we think, surely, surely, He doesn't know
how bad I am, or He would have never chosen me. He knows. He knows. We begin to look. Here's the awful mistake, and
here's what conjures up these fears. We begin to look in ourselves
for the cause of Him choosing us. Do we not? You have trouble
with that legalism, that self-righteous, that free will, the Arminianism. Are you an Arminian by nature?
We all are. And we begin to look within ourselves
to find the cause of Him loving us and Him choosing us. And we
can't find it. And we fear. You know, the only way to dispel
This fear that he's talking about, I have chosen you, fear not,
is to just believe it. Just believe it. Quit trying
to figure out why and believe him. If he says, I have chosen
you, then believe it. He shows us in Christ freely. He's redeemed us in Christ graciously. He's called us and put us in
Christ by covenant mercies. He's given us faith to believe
in Christ. Just believe that He chose you. I don't know of how else to settle
this thing in our hearts, but to believe. We're getting worse and worse
and worse in our own eyes, but not in His eyes. He knew it when
He chose us. He knew it when He chose you. He never chose us because we
were strong, did He? And we think now because we're
still utterly weak, He's going to cast us out? He chose us not
because we were strong, but He chose us to be our strength. I will strengthen you. He didn't
choose us because He saw a time that we would never need His
help, that we could walk alone. But He chose us to be our constant
help. I will help you. I will uphold
you. He knew it all along, brothers
and sisters. He knew it all along. Our Lord describes us to ourselves
for two reasons. He does so to humble us. God
cannot endear you and I or anybody coming before His presence with
any confidence in our flesh. So he begins here in chapter
40, and he tells us about what we are in and of ourselves. And
he compares us to grass. And he says it like this in verse
6. The voice said, Cry, and I said,
Cry. What shall I cry? All flesh is
grass, and all the goodness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, and the
flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord glows upon it. For just another few weeks, if
we don't get any rain, it's going to dry up, ain't it? Me and Joe were out one time
in South Dakota. You look outside, and there's
nothing but these old dried-up twigs, straw, everywhere. We
pulled over the side of the road and got out and I almost passed
out. A hundred and eight degrees and
a warm wind was blowing right across those plains. It was awful.
And I'm telling you what, there was cracks in the ground, no
grass, nothing green, everything was dead. Dead. That's what happens to our goodness. That's what happens to our merit.
That's what happens to our strength when the Spirit of the Lord blows
upon us. You're nothing. You're nothing. Look at us. Look at us. A few more days and what's going
to happen to us? We're getting old and full of
pain and disease and we're going to die just like the grass. That's
all we are. We're grass. And He tells us
this to humble ourselves. A few more days and I'm going
to roll you up and put you in the tomb. You're nothing. You're
just like grass. How could He be so harsh? How
could He be so unkind? It's the truth. And He's not going to hide the
truth from us. You don't care how much it breaks
you and hurts you. He's going to bring you low and
humble you. He tells you what you are. Then
he says here in chapter 41 in verse 14, look at this, Fear
not thou worm. You ever go out in the days when
the ground's wet, got those big red worms wiggling up out of
the ground? You ever pull one of them apart
right in the middle? Do that sometime. Look what comes out
of it. The old mud. Eat one of those things. I know
a guy that eats worms. He said they're awful crunchy.
All that's in them is a bunch of mess. Oh, it's awful. Isn't
that an awful way for our God to describe us? You worms. You worms. You're just wiggling
around through this filth and the dirt of this world. You're
just worms. But I've chosen you. I've chosen
you. He tells us down here in verse
17, and He calls us poor and needy. Poor and needy. Seeking for water and find none. He tells us these things that
we'd be humble before Him. That's the way He'll have us,
brothers and sisters. He's going to have us down at His feet. He's going to have us down. That's
why He tells us these things. He tells us that for this reason,
that you and I may know that He knows. He wants us to know,
but He wants us to know that He knows. Why is it important
that He knows our condition? Why is it so important to you,
for you to know that He knows that you are warned? That he
remembers that you're just grass. That you're here for a few days
and you're going to leave. Why is it so important to you
that he knows? You ever go to the doctor? I
went to the doctor one time and I was so sick and I thought surely
he'd put me in the hospital and find out what's wrong with me.
He couldn't find out what was wrong with me and sent me home
sicker than a dog. I thought I was going to die.
I didn't know what scared me to death. If you think you're
dying and you're vomiting up old green stuff, And you think,
it's going to kill me. I can't stand the pain. And the
doctor sends you home and tells you, man, I'm sorry. I don't
know what's the matter with you. Wouldn't it be fearful if you
thought that the Lord who chose you didn't know you? No, He knows
you. He knows you better than you
know yourself. He knew what you were when He
chose you, and He'll never forget what you are now. And He pities you as a father
pities his children. And He remembers that you are
dust. And He looks at you and He says,
Fear not, you worm! I've chosen you. You're Mine! I'm your shepherd, I'm your God,
I've redeemed you. Don't be afraid. Let the sense of this evil, of
what you are in yourself, humble you, but let the sense of God's
grace exalt you. You are vile in yourself, but
you are chosen to indescribable honor. God is your God. What honor? I am your God. You are poor and needy in yourself,
but you are chosen to unspeakable riches. You are naked in yourself,
but you are chosen to eternal glory. One man said this. Child of God, never lose your
hold of this precious truth that God has revealed it that you
might delight in it. He tells you this that He has
chosen you to encourage you, to strengthen you, to sanctify
you. Let this be the brightest jewel
in your crown and the sweetest cordial to your heart. that God
Himself says to you, ìFear not, I have chosen you.î As you set
at Jesusí feet, as you lay your mouth in the dust and cry, ìUnclean,
unclean!î As you take all the shame to yourself and give all
the glory to God, Let this comfort delight your soul that God says
to you, ìFear not, I have chosen you.î Child of God by new birth, God
chose you. He actually picked you out and chose you in Jesus Christ. before the foundation of the
world. Fear none above Him, love none
above Him, and believe none above Him. Fear not. There are times, to be honest
with you, we sung page 226 this morning. I thought of the cross. And there are times that I absolutely
My faith is so utterly weak that I can't see Christ. In His redemptive
glory, I've just sunk in the darkness of my mind. This truth
here picks me up and keeps me more than any other truth. That
if God has chosen me in Christ, that He is well with me. No matter
what I feel, no matter what I think, no matter what dark valley I'm
through, I'm going through or hills I'm climbing, if He has
chosen me, I don't have to fear. It's well. It's well. Fear not. It's well. Let's pray.